ear later, he has also had to decide what deserves preserving, what can change and what Michael Hill looks like under someone else’s stewardship.  Waecker’s career offers a clue to the kind of chief executive Michael Hill has hired. At Disney, Waecker moved into franchise management in 2007 and was part of a small team tasked with turning Hannah Montana from a hit television series into a far more diverse commercial franchise. Within a year, it had become a billion-dollar property. He later became vice-president of marketing communications at Yahoo and spent seven years at The Warehouse Group. Michael Hill, on the other hand, offers a product with an emotional relationship built in. “Jewellery is incredibly personal,” Waecker said. “People aren’t just buying a product, they’re marking something, expressing something, or sometimes transforming how they feel about themselves.”  Reducing the portfolio  Respect for the company has not made Waecker precious about everything he inherited. Within eight months of taking the job, Michael Hill set out a strategy to reduce its five-brand portfolio to two, focusing on Michael Hill and Bevilles. Medley and TenSevenSeven closed as standalone brands, and Watches Galore was redirected into Bevilles. Physical retail has a pivotal role Michael Hill reported record FY26 revenue of $655.7 million last month. Waecker described himself elsewhere as “very, very chuffed”, but with Inside Retail, he is more steady: “I think they’re an encouraging proof point that we’re moving in the right direction.” In Waecker’s telling, the customer has become the organising principle for almost every decision the company makes. Michael Hill now operates 281 stores across Australia, Canada and New Zealand, with blossoming online sales making ecommerce the company’s largest single “store”. Still, Waecker is adamant the store must become more than a place where customers transact. “Physical retail has an enormous role to play.”  Canada offers the clearest evidence that Michael Hill’s proposition can travel, with same-store sales rising 7 per cent in FY26, ahead of New Zealand’s 3.6 per cent and Australia’s 4.8 per cent. Michael Hill plans to refit five of its six most popular Canadian stores, while Waecker is searching for future flagship sites. He attributes the market’s strength to product-market fit and the appeal of the brand’s New Zealand “handwriting”. Global ambition, in his version, still carries an antipodean accent.   Executive shake-up After Waecker arrived, Michael Hill reviewed its executive structure, removed the chief retail officer role and reduced the leadership team to enhance accountability and decision-making. Elodie Guillaumond joined as CFO, Tonia Zehrer as chief product officer and Tanya Atkinson as executive general manager of Bevilles. Rob Fyfe is set to retire as chair in November, and Claudia Batten will take over. Waecker recently called Fyfe “an absolute legend” and “an incredible steward of this brand”.  For Michael Hill and Bevilles, Waecker’s ambitions are expansive. “I’d love Michael Hill to become one of the world’s most distinctive modern jewellery brands, and for Bevilles to become an incredibly strong and differentiated Australian jewellery retailer in its own right.” The ambition comes as Australian same-store sales continue to grow, albeit more modestly, at 1.7 per cent in the opening weeks of FY27. “We’re asking ourselves much more relentlessly what would make Michael Hill more compelling and distinctive for them,” he said. “We’ve made good progress, but there’s lots more opportunity. I actually think we’re still relatively early in what Michael Hill can become.”